The Day Before

There is a day before. It always comes, just the day before.

The end of July sees us heading off to Europe for two months. One month in Italy, and one month in the UK. I am excited about both, and a little nervous about the first. It will be our, and my, first trip to continental Europe where English is not the lingua franca.

However, I feel I am well-prepared, having studied Italian for ten months straight every day and am now conversing relatively freely with my Italian teacher, a charming and clever man who teaches at the University of Salerno. At this point, I am probably at the top end of B2 level for European languages, out of a Beginners A1 through to Advanced C2.

Learning a new language was one of my target behaviours for when I retired. From a neuroscientific point of view, keeping your brain healthy and maybe even keeping dementia at bay, is best served by learning something brand new. Something you did not know before.

I already had University level French under my belt, and it was tempting to just pick that up again, but it does not really fulfil the ‘brand new’ criterion for neurogenesis (creating new brain cells and making new connections with existing ones). I have always wanted to travel to Italy, so I thought, why not. I’ll start learning Italian, and who knows, maybe one day I’ll get to go.

And it has become a joy for me. I’ve always had a penchant for language and language play, so learning Italian has thoroughly seduced me into its delights.

Regardless of my language training, I am very enthusiastic to see and experience Italy for it has many things to offer that I love, to wit, the ancient world, antiquities, the Renaissance, architecture, art, sculpture and music, the Vatican and the Church, glorious food and wine, and more than its fair share of nature in all its beauty.

Our itinerary covers Rome, Sorrento (Pompei, Amalfi coast, Salerno), Florence, Ravenna and Bologna. We will be staying put in each place sometimes up to seven and eight days as we want to get a feel for the place and enjoy newly discovered streets and people. I am very hopeful for this trip.

Today is the day before. We are now ensconced in our hotel room at Sydney airport all ready to get up at 2am to fulfil all the requirements that a 6am fight demands. It’s been a big two days just getting here and we are both tired. And I daresay we’ll be tired when we get there, but we’ve pencilled in two free days before we start doing tours and the whole tourist thing in order to give us time to catch ourselves.

Chris’ folks generously gave us a lift to the airport and had a late lunch with us at Smithy’s bar and bistro before driving home again. We’ve settled in and had a cocktail up in Cloud Nine on the 9th floor overlooking the airport as the sun set and just watched the planes take off and land as we chatted about life. It is very peaceful, and I personally feel very positive about our trip.Meer informatie